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Talk:West of Mars/@comment-25628265-20150919123904
will complete this later.. Jimmy's official and definitive second season ranking is.. twenty-fifth 25 place out of thirty 30 total episodes Season Two, Episode Eleven First telecast Wednesday, November 30, 1966 WEST OF MARS Guest Stars ALLAN MELVIN MICKEY MANNERS Written by MICHAEL FESSIER Directed by NATHAN JURAN Here is a unique, very entertaining and fun episode/story that has done nothing but grow on me over the years. Back in the old days (when I speak of the "old days," I pretty much mean the 1970s and the 1980s), I considered this episode to truly be one of the dregs and downtrodden episodes of the series. Of course, "West Of Mars" is still not a work of classic LOST IN SPACE art, as far as the series original premise, classic and legendary black and white episodes go, but this episode is certainly much better than meets the eye. This episode is fun, clever, funny, and downright 'LiS Lite.' Like my good LOST IN SPACE buddy would say, some of the lighter, more fanciful episodes seem to work better if you chalk the story all up as one long unexplained dream sequence. This creative and rare western-themed story is definitely one of them. Some things in this story are obviously not to be taken all too seriously, and therefore, this is most definitely an episode/story that purposely does not take itself very seriously. It is just a good ol' western spoof style episode here. It is pretty much all sort of played tongue-in-cheek, for laughter and laughs..but all in good pure fun. It is completely rare for this series, but it works, and talented special guest star Jonathan Harris gets to really shine as he has a chance to actually play duo roles, because Zeno just happens to look exactly like Dr. Smith. How convenient! Perhaps the most glaring and notorious sight gag in this story are the electronically powered animals outside the bar containing the sacred golden globe in the fragmented western town. Also of note, is the overly fake 'Jail' spaceship, with the suddenly appearing saran wrap covering. At one point, the enforcer even sticks a telescope through the saran wrap while the ship is in space. Another funny thing is how painfully obvious it is to tell the difference between the real Dr. Smith and the notorious super swift gunslinger, Zeno. Zeno smokes, he carries arms, he teaches Penny how to play galactic poker, he hits on Judy and he calls her "Judy baby," he threatens to blast an unarmed robot and he calls him "pussycat," he shoves Major West and points his gun at him, and he generally talks with a slow, lower-pitched drawl, among other things. Besides the very rare western spoof theme, there are other important, rare, one-of-a-kind factors to mention. Those rail cars containing blue-colored ore are a complete one-of-a-kind equipment. At one point, Major West tells Dr. Smith (Zeno) to take that ore over to the smelter. The incidental background music scores for this episode were scored by guest composer Robert Drasnin. Robert Drasnin did work for other LOST IN SPACE episodes as well, but except for a very small amount of the music here, this generally western sounding music is completely unique. In fact, the writer for this episode is one of those rare 'one hit wonder' writers. His name is Michael Fessier. However, the director for this episode is not rare at all. It is our old familiar director Nathan Juran, with his fifth episode of the colored second season already, and his eighth directing credit for the series overall. Guest star Allan Melvin, from GOMER PYLE, U.S.M.C. (Sergeant Hacker) and THE BRADY BUNCH (Sam) fame, plays the witty role of Enforcer Claudius. Here, he is simply credited as 'Enforcer.' The rather comical Mickey Manners plays Dee, who seems to be the head man of the frontier town. Ken Mayer plays the no-nonsense, but still funny dressed in purple, slightly out of shape Pleiades Pete, who calls Dr. Smith/Zeno a "pink-livered, pure ?, pusillanimous pipsqueak.” A couple of non-credited guest players are Eddie Quillen as the bartender. Also, Charles Arthur is the stand-in double for Jonathan Harris in scenes where they appear together. GUY WILLIAMS .as Professor John Robinson JUNE LOCKHART ...as Maureen Robinson MARK GODDARD ...as Don West MARTA KRISTEN ...as Judy Robinson BILLY MUMY ...as Will Robinson ANGELA CARTWRIGHT ...as Penny Robinson JONATHAN HARRIS ...as Dr. Zachary Smith ALLAN MELVIN ...as Enforcer MICKEY MANNERS ...as Dee KEN MAYER ...as Pleiades Pete Associate Producer... WILLIAM FARALLA Story Editor... ANTHONY WILSON Music... ROBERT DRASNIN Music Supervision... LIONEL NEWMAN Production Supervisor... JACK SONNTAG Production Associate... HAL HERMAN Unit Production Manager... NORMAN HENRY Director of Photography... FRANK CARSON Post Production Supervisor... GEORGE E. SWINK Art Directors... JACK MARTIN SMITH ROBERT KINOSHITA Set Decoration... WALTER M. SCOTT JAMES HASSINGER Costumes Designed by... PAUL ZASTUPNEVICH Film Editor... CLAY BARTELS Special Photographic Effects... L. B. ABBOTT, A.S.C. Make-Up Supervision... BEN NYE Hair Styling Supervision... MARGARET DONOVAN Production Coordinator... LES WARNER Supervising Sound Effects Editor... DON HALL, JR. Sound Effects Editor... FRANK WHITE Theme... JOHNNY WILLIAMS Executive in Charge of Production for VAN BERNARD GUY DELLA CIOPPA Color by DE LUXE Copyright c. MCMLXVI SPACE PRODUCTIONS TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX TELEVISION, INC. All Rights Reserved 9512 Assistant Director... JAMES M. WALTERS, JR. Supervising Music Editor... LEONARD A. ENGEL Music Editor....JOSEPH RUBY Post Production Coordinator... ROBERT MINTZ Astronomical Photographs Copyright 1959 by THE CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AN IRWIN ALLEN PRODUCTION in association with JODI PRODUCTIONS, INC. VAN BERNARD PRODUCTIONS, INC. TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX TELEVISION, INC. & CBS TELEVISION NETWORK WILLIAM SELF In Charge of Production Filmed at the Hollywood Studios of TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX TELEVISION, INC.